Happy Birthday Jesus!

As many of us enjoy times with our families, there are many without any family or anyone to spend this day with. I am reminded today that we all have one thing in common; no matter who we are we have the same amazing Father, the Savior that laid His life down for us all. His eye is on each of us today, and He knows right where we are. He knows what we all need and His mind is not on what we can give Him for His birthday, but what He can do for us. Can you even imagine the heart of the Man that laid Himself down to save us? Not only did He give His life once but He is still giving us everything He has today and everyday. He loves us more than any of us can understand or even imagine. What a man, what a God, what a friend! He is everything we need. No matter where you are today or who you’re with, you have Jesus spending His birthday with you. Let Him be whatever you have need of today. Call on His name and He will answer. Some might need a comforter or a healer, or maybe a spouse or a parent. He knows you better than you know yourself…just let Him in and let Him love you! Happy Birthday Jesus! I love you! 

What moves you?

What is your ear tuned to these days? What grabs your heart? What have you allowed to grab your attention? What moves you to action? 

We see hurting and starving children on tv or the internet almost every day. The news of death and tragedy is everywhere; does it even affect you anymore? How about the hurting people around you that you may work with or go to church with? Some of them put on a fake face of all is well, but deep down we all know that something is NOT right and they are going through a trial or experiencing pain. 

Maybe you are the one that is going through something painful, an emotional struggle, feeling lost or lonely.  Perhaps you are having a hard time with just your every day activities. Don’t you want to be free from the pain of life or feel again? 

See we are the people with the remedy to pain or sickness, to loneliness, to every sorrow. We have a HOPE and a promise of a future.  We have peace and joy and true happiness. We have the answer to EVERY situation. Yes, there is real hope for this broken world and His name is JESUS Christ!  

He would change anything for you, move any mountain.  He wants to heal your broken heart and fill you with overwhelming love; to be that comfort you are longing for. He wants to wrap you in His arms and protect you from every attack.

The thief comes in the night to take HOPE from us all, but he has no ability or permission unless we give it to him (which is another message for another day but if you feel that you have lost hope please contact me directly and we will pray for you to be free again through our Lord Jesus Christ).  Don’t let him steal anything that isn’t his!

So back to my original question…The Lord awoke me today and said “What moves My people anymore?” I felt His heart and His love for the people as they cried out to the Lord in their private time or their time of despair. The Lord is asking you today “What moves YOU to action?” because His children are lost and asking for Him for help. So in turn He is asking you to go, to lay down your own agenda and find His children and bring them hope again through His Presence. Just one touch is all it takes. How will they know unless we tell them?  It’s time for God’s people to be the Jesus in this world that He created us to be.  Are you ready to go?  Are you ready to take action?

The Corner

There was a time in my life when the enemy came to push me in the corner...let me explain.  I have always been a strong person, a strong woman, not easily intimidated or fearful.  There are some things that happen, though, that take my breath away, that hurt down to the bone.  I know we all have had things that have caused deep wounds or areas where we have wondered how we can ever recover.  Some of us have experienced the true meaning of the word brokenness.

In that season I was in a completely broken state.  I tried to block things and people out, and I became someone different as I tried to recover alone.  I found myself living in fear and confusion.  I had a deep desire to give up, to get in the fetal position in the corner of my room, cover my head, and cry. I knew I needed God and I knew it was only in His presence I could get healed and set free from the bondage of that brokenness and where it had taken me.

I felt the Lord wooing me to a secret place in Him, away from everything else and everyone else.  I simply said "Yes, Lord I will meet you there; I will draw near to You."  I told Him I had nothing to give and nothing to say, and I told Him to take over.  He came in like a flood and began to heal me and talk to me, teach me and correct me, and most importantly to show me how much He loved me.  I met Him in that same place every day for almost over a year before I felt completely free.

In my healing process the Lord taught me that the devil comes to steal not just life itself but our passions, our hopes and our dreams. The enemy wants us lost in our life so we have no impact in the world. When we are broken we hear the pounding of our pain. It's distracting and it gets us off of our focus. That's why the Word says we must cast all our cares and burdens on Him. We have to come quickly to Him for help and He will always show up to heal us.

You see the goal of the enemy is to keep you bound in brokenness, ineffective for the kingdom of God, so as pain comes or hurt comes you have a choice to make: do you retreat to the corner or stand and fight to stay free? It's so easy to slip back into that place of hurt because pain knows pain.  That means you can actually find a kind of comfort in the pain itself.  Maybe you were hurt by a parent as a child or later in life by a close friend. Different events bring different types of pain in different stages of life but this new pain will take you back to the hurts you experienced as a child and it will try to compound. You may think "I was healed before but the pain keep coming back."  Listen to me, you are healed!

It's really like a symptom; we all get them and when they come we try to self-diagnose ourselves. We even Google our symptoms trying to figure out what they mean, when what we should be doing is immediately declaring and decreeing our healing and victory over every sickness.  The same goes with pain or offense; as new pain appears it's like a symptom and we have to quickly make the decision not to accept it but to instantly release it, and old pain will try to tempt you to take it back, but say "NO!"  The devil thinks he's smooth but just recognize it's a trick, it's an attack in the battlefield of our minds and we have to take our thoughts under submission and stand on the Word and its truth. The truth is it's not even our fight and we have been set free and we can stay free all by making 1 choice.  Just refuse to accept it and give it to the Lord.

You know, God says "Meet Me in the altar." He says that so that we will bring our needs to Him-ALL of our needs. We can have an altar anywhere -- my bed, my couch, my floor, my closet -- and that becomes the place where we decide to release it all into His presence. You don't have to wait for a service to get to Him. You don't really have to do anything but just worship Him and then say "Lord I am here, please help me." He will show up every single time and He always makes a way of escape for us.

He loves you SO much and He never wants you to be in pain or to see you hurting.  He is greater than anything you will ever face, so stand on Him, stand on the Truth, stand on the Word...get out of that corner the devil pushed you into and just STAND!

Inner Beauty

As women we have a tendency to illuminate things in the mirror as we judge ourselves. It's crazy how the world is ALL about our outer appearance with no real focus on inner beauty. My mom always use to say "Pretty is as pretty does."  Let's be honest, we all have looked at other women all around the world and said "Lord why did you give her all the goods?" We compare ourselves with others, not only in outer beauty but in "the goods" also.

Years ago in my earlier 20's the Lord took me to Gal 5:16 where it talks about the fruits of the Spirit.  You would crack up hearing that conversation I had with the Lord. Here is part of it. Me: "Lord I am kind, long suffering, and loving!" God: "Yes daughter that's the plan for you, but that's not who you are today." He showed me I struggled with outbursts of wrath.  Hahaha. I am sure my husband was glad that He showed me that one! He is so gentle but so black and white and straight to the point.  Ladies, I don't know about you but the Lord talks to me bluntly...He knows I have to have it that way and I really love it because it's always right what I need every single time.

As I began to focus on my inner beauty asking the Holy Spirit to help me walk in all the fruits of the Spirit I saw changes in my outer appearance as well.  Let me give you an example. I began to look at myself as a gift to others around me. The Lord began to teach me that I am a gift to my husband, my children, my parents, my church family, even my in-laws. When you think of a gift it's not the outer package that is the reward it's what is inside that matters. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to not take care of your temple ladies lol, but I am saying as you work on the inside it will guide you to deal with and correct things on the outside as well.

Recently I have been on a weight loss journey. Funny thing is I feel like I have been on this road ever since my youngest was born. You know what I mean it's always "I'll start my diet on Monday"...lol.  Anyway, this time was different  because it was in me, in my spirit, to do it. When I got to the end of myself with it the Lord spoke to me and said "Why haven't you asked me for help in this area?" See I was trying to do it only in the strong arm of the flesh.  When we try to do anything ourselves without the Lord, (I mean anything - like raising children, being a good wife to our husbands, whatever...He cares about it all) we will struggle and probably fail. He is a God that is all about the details in our lives. He loves to be invited to get involved in everything, yes everything. So I said "Ok Lord, help me in this area." As we walked this journey together day by day, He taught me things and corrected some things in me. The biggest change I saw Him make was to help me control my thoughts and not to be thinking about my next meal while I am eating my current meal lol.  My amazing hubby and his friends love to eat and eat good so they literally will plan their daily schedules and even traveling around where they want to eat. That taught me a habit to always be thinking of what's next. Holy Spirit taught me to feel satisfied with what I just had and let Him plan my future provision.  That principle can easily be applied to our finances or anything else we need. Since we started on this I have lost over 25 pounds and i have another 10 or so to go so keep me in your prayers for that :)

As you read this I am sure some of you are saying "Well Aprile that's easier said than done." Those were my thoughts too, but if you stop and think about it that would apply to more than half the stuff we do on a daily basis. It's only through Him that helps us, so it actually IS easy if you lean on Him for it like you do other things in your life.  You just have to ask; the Word says we have not because we ask not. What else do you struggle with because you haven't asked for His help?

Today, stop looking in the mirror and instead start looking inward.  Ask the Lord to teach you how to make your temple clean for Him in every way.  I promise it's a journey you want to take. Being whole in Him is so powerful. You will be able to hear Him so clearly because you allow your own walls to come down, when you remove any blockages between you and your Father. We become who He created us to be..the woman of God, the gift to the world that we are. Step into your destiny.

Keep it real ladies! Love you all!

First Blog

Hello my precious, strong, beautiful ladies, my sisters in Christ! The Lord told me to start a blog for women to find a place to be encouraged and strengthened through the Word. As I start this new venture, please forgive my directness and bluntness as I tend to type just like I preach LOL!

Ladies, God is SO good!  He loves you SO much and He is SO in love with everything about you.  It's crazy to think we were hand-created by such a mighty God. There are times I look at situations and they seem overwhelming or too big and I think to myself "God really, how can this be? How can I get through this?"  He only answers and says "Daughter don't take it on yourself! I AM your help in time of need." He always knows what we need in the very moment when things look like they might fall apart. Our job is trust our very big Creator, our Jehovah, our God!  Just be still girl, and know that He will complete everything He started.

I was talking to a very sweet friend of mine about how we as women have control over the atmosphere of our homes. God reminded me that He says in His word in Proverbs 14:1(NKJV) "The wise woman builds her house BUT the foolish pulls it down with her hands."  See ladies, it's in our hands.  We can build our children up, even our husbands! You know as wives and mothers we can see them coming a mile away with stress or just frustration from work or whatever. In that moment we have a choice, we can be wise or we can be foolish.  The Lord showed me years ago that I can keep control over the home by my worship. The Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue so when we worship we bring life. I play worship music almost 24/7 in my home. Even at night I will turn it down low and just allow that sweet sound to fill my home. Of course sometimes the enemy brings aggravation but you have to see it for what it is and not overreact to the enemy.  He always wants to make us a drama queen...so just say NO, stand your ground and keep only words of life in your mouth! 

Speaking of controlling the atmosphere, be careful about what you watch on tv or listen to.  These are crazy times we are living in and the news can be so scary some times.  Lately even "Christian" television has been more doom and gloom than life!  You are going to probably laugh out loud at this, but I was praying the other day about whether I should go buy a cave in a mountain somewhere and prepare for "dooms day."  The Lord spoke to me and said "When would I ever want you or my people to hide in a cave? How would you win souls by hiding? Lol, I thought "God you're so cool!"  He reminds me daily that He is my provider, my supplier in all things and to keep my hands to myself.  He instructs us only to stay close to Him and trust that He will take care of everything else around us.

Today, I am flying home from an amazing 2 weeks in Alaska.  We took a large team to minister with Abbot Loop Church, and I totally fell in LOVE with those people. As I sit in my seat and overlook the clouds I can't help but feel close to heaven which makes me want to worship even more.  As I look out and smile I feel Him smiling back. So get your worship on ladies and remember to always speak LIFE!